Hassan II (El Hassan ben Mohammed; 9 July 1929 – 23 July 1999) was King of Morocco from 1961 until his death in 1999. Before his accession, he served as Crown Prince of Morocco from 1957 to 1961 and held key positions including commander-in-chief of the Royal Armed Forces and deputy prime minister. He was the eldest son of Mohammed V, who led Morocco to independence from French & Spanish rule.
Hassan was born in Rabat during the reign of his father, Mohammed V, the future king who would lead Morocco to independence. He was the eldest son of the sultan and received a dual education that combined traditional Islamic instruction with modern studies at the Royal College in Rabat, before pursuing legal studies at the University of Bordeaux. During the final years of the French Protectorate, Hassan became increasingly involved in political and diplomatic affairs, accompanying his father during exile and later taking part in negotiations that culminated in Morocco’s independence in 1956. As crown prince, he quickly emerged as a central political figure within the newly independent state.
Upon his accession to the throne in 1961, Hassan inherited a fragile political system as many parts of the country were still under foreign control, police and military were scattered and often ruled by political parties. hence he moved to consolidate royal authority. In 1962, he promulgated Morocco’s first constitution, which formally established a constitutional monarchy and a multi-party political system while reserving extensive executive powers for the crown. His early reign was marked by significant instability, including the Sand War with Algeria in 1963 and growing domestic opposition that culminated in the Casablanca protests of 1965. In response, he declared a state of exception and ruled by decree for several years. Sidi Ifni recovery from Spain (1969).
His position was further threatened by two major coup attempts—the Skhirat attack in 1971 and the air force attack in 1972—both of which he survived, reinforcing his determination to centralize power and maintain control over the military and political system.
In 1975, Hassan organized the Green March, a mass mobilization aimed at asserting Moroccan sovereignty over the former Spanish Sahara, leading to Morocco’s control over much of the territory and the onset of the prolonged Western Sahara conflict with the Polisario Front. Throughout his reign, he pursued a foreign policy that positioned Morocco as a strategic ally of Western powers while maintaining ties within the Arab world. Domestically, his rule combined state-building and economic development with strict political control, and was characterized by an authoritarian system, particularly during the Years of Lead. Hassan died in Rabat on 23 July 1999 and was succeeded by his eldest son, Mohammed VI. In the years following his death, the Moroccan state established the Equity and Reconciliation Commission to investigate human rights violations committed during his reign, marking a significant step toward official acknowledgment of that period.
Moulay El Hassan ben Mohammed El Alaoui was born on 9 July 1929 at the Dar al-Makhzen in Rabat, during the French protectorate in Morocco, as the eldest son to then-reigning sultan Mohammed V and his second wife, Lalla Abla bint Tahar, as a member of the 'Alawi dynasty.
He first studied Islamic sciences at the Dar al-Makhzen in Fez. He then became a student at the Royal College in Rabat, where instruction was conducted in Arabic and French and a class was created for him. Mehdi Ben Barka was notably his mathematics teacher for four years at the Royal College. In June 1948, he obtained his baccalaureate from the Royal College.
Hassan pursued his higher education at the Rabat Institute of Higher Studies, a department of the University of Bordeaux, from where he received a law degree in 1951. In 1952, he earned a master's degree in public law from the University of Bordeaux before serving in the French Navy on board the Jeanne d'Arc cruiser. He was a doctoral student at the Faculty of Law of Bordeaux in 1953, when his family's exile occurred. After having ascended the throne, on 25 June 1963, Dean Lajugie presented him with the insignia of Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Bordeaux.
In 1943, a twelve-year-old Hassan attended the Casablanca Conference at the Anfa Hotel along with his father, where he met United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and General Charles de Gaulle. In 1947, he attended his father's speech in what was then the Tangier International Zone. In the speech, Sultan Mohammed wished for the French and Spanish protectorates and the Tangier International Zone to be unified into one nation. The speech became a reference for Moroccan nationalists and anti-colonial movements and later led to Morocco's independence.
Hassan later claimed that he had "profound resentment" towards the protectorate and that he felt "deep humiliation" from French colonialism. Despite paying hommage to Hubert Lyautey, the first resident-general of the French protectorate, he was highly critical of Lyautey's successors, noting their "stubborn stupidity" and "total insensitivity".
Hassan and his family were forced into exile by French authorities on 20 August 1953, being deported to Zonza in Corsica. Their deportation led to protests and further fueled the anti-colonial movement. They moved to the city of L'Île-Rousse and lived at the Napoléon Bonaparte hotel for five months before being transferred to Antsirabe, Madagascar in January 1954. During this time, Mohammed Ben Aarafa was named sultan in Morocco by the French government.
Prince Hassan acted as his father's political advisor during their exile. They returned to Morocco on 16 November 1955. He participated with his father in the February 1956 negotiations for Moroccan independence. Following Morocco's independence from France, his father named him commander-in-chief of the newly founded Royal Moroccan Armed Forces in April 1956. The same year, he led army contingents to victory after defeating rebel militias during the Rif revolt. It was during his tenure as commander-in-chief that he met General Mohamed Oufkir, who became Minister of Defense during his reign. Oufkir would later suspected of orchestrating a failed coup d'état to kill Hassan in 1972.
After Mohammed V changed the title of the Moroccan sovereign from Sultan to King in 1957, Hassan was proclaimed Crown Prince on 9 July 1957. In this position, he was the president of the organising committee of the International Meeting at the monastery of Toumliline in 1957 and gave a welcome speech.
Hassan ascended the throne on 26 February 1961 on his father's death. His enthronement took place at the Royal Palace of Rabat on 3 March 1961, and he also inherited the position of prime minister.
In 1962, Hassan and his aides wrote Morocco's first constitution, defining the kingdom as a social and democratic constitutional monarchy, making Islam the state religion, and creating the title of Amir al-Mu'minin and "supreme representative of the nation" for the king, whose person was defined as "inviolable and sacred". The constitution also reaffirmed a multi-party political system, the only one which existed in the Maghreb at that time. The constitution provoked strong political protest from the UNFP and the Istiqlal and other leftist parties that formed the opposition at the time.
Hassan's reign was infamous for a poor human rights record labeled as "appalling" by the BBC. It was, however, at its worst during the period from the 1960s to the late 1980s, which was labelled as the "years of lead" and saw thousands of dissidents jailed, killed, exiled or forcibly disappeared. The country would only become relatively freer by the early 1990s under strong international pressure and condemnation over its human rights record. Since then, Morocco's human rights record has improved modestly and improved significantly during the reign of Hassan's successor Mohammed VI. In 2004, the Equity and Reconciliation Commission was created by Mohammed to investigate human rights abuses during his father's reign.